Once I followed
Jesus’ invitation to come and see, and I beheld what manner of love he bestowed
upon me, I had no other desire than to abide with him. I had been so many other places with so many
other people, and yet I was still lost and empty of any true meaning in my
life. That Sunday morning as I
encountered him, it was as though there had been scales that suddenly fell
off. I could see clearly. It was as though my head was filled with fog
that suddenly dissipated in the sun. I
could think clearly. Everything was
different from the inside out. I truly
felt like I was reborn into a world I unknown to me, and yet I knew very
well. After forty plus years I am not
perfect but since that one moment in time I was never the same.
Old lifestyles die
hard; old habits are firmly ingrained and take time to change. This rebirth was not the culmination of the
Christian life; it was a beginning. I
look back now at all the changes that occurred in my thinking and in my
life. I now understand why God kept the
Israelites in the desert for forty years.
He was making a people for Himself, and it takes a lot of time to
redeem, readjust, and recalibrate people into what they were originally
designed to be. It has been no different
for me. It takes a lot of dying to old
and ingrained ways to recreate new growth.
Looking back it was worth it; in the midst of the process it was hard
work and many laments to “go back to Egypt
Being a follower
of Jesus is not an easy path to take these days. The calls to compromise and change with the
times are all around me. Along my
journey I have done both and I know the results. They are unsustainable and unacceptable to me
at his point in my life. There is no
other Way for me, no other Truth for me, no other Life for me than following
Jesus and walking with God.
“Abide in me and I in you…If anyone
loves me, she will obey my
teaching. My Father will love her, and we will come to
her and make
our home with her” (John 15:5, 14:
23).
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